Harry Potter and the Saiyajin Wizard
by Dazcha
Summary: A DBZ/Harry Potter crossover. Gohan goes to Hogwarts and finds that a wizard's life isn't all waving wands and saying silly phrases
1. Chapter the First

Harry Potter and the Saiya-jin Wizard 

Ever wondered what would happen if Gohan went to Hogwarts? You haven't? Well, that takes all the fun out of writing this then. Anyway, I'm writing this purely for my own entertainment and to distract me from my other fic, The Ping-Pong Saga, which was becoming so much of an obsession with me that I'd be locked in a dark room for days on end just trying to work out what would happen next. Before you ask, I am planning to work on both the Ping Pong Saga and this fanfic simultaneously, writing a chapter of one, then a chapter of the other, until I go criminally insane.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter or Gohan. I also don't own any other characters that appear in here. I don't own London or Surrey or King's Cross Station. I don't own a lot of other things either, so get off my back already!

Chapter the First 

"I'm home, Mum!" an eleven-year-old boy named Gohan Son called out as he entered his home.

"Hi, Gohan," his mother, Chi-Chi greeted warmly, "Goten's asleep upstairs, so don't make too much noise."

"'Kay."

You would be forgiven for thinking that this was a normal family. You would also be forgiven for thinking that the polite young boy named Gohan could not have fought a monster that was about to destroy the Earth and won. But unfortunately, two years ago, Gohan did exactly that, as did Gohan's father, Goku, who was not so lucky and was killed by the monster, Cell. That was a long time ago, though, in a different country, and as the old saying goes, life goes on. Chi-Chi and Gohan moved from Japan to England, and everything is back to normal.

The house that Chi-Chi and Gohan lived in was not the best house in the street, but they both liked it and that's all that matters. It was a two-bedroom house that was almost identical in layout to their old house in Japan. Gohan had to share his room with his two-year-old brother, Goten, but he got on well with him, so that wasn't a big deal. It seemed that on this day in late July, the Son family was looking forward to a life of normalcy.

It was this lovely, normal, peaceful English life that Gohan had returned home to, and he was now reading some book. Unlike most eleven-year-olds, Gohan enjoyed reading, and as soon as he learned to read English, he had filled his bookshelf with everything he could get his hands on.

"Oh, by the way, Gohan, you got a letter today," Chi-Chi drew her son's attention away from his book and handed him a letter. The letter was perfectly normal except for two small details, the first being that it had no stamp. The second being that the address, written in bright green ink, was rather odd:

_Mr G. Son  
The Left-Hand Side of the Upstairs Bedroom  
14 Rosebush Lane  
Guildford  
Surrey_

On the back of the envelope was a wax seal. Gohan excitedly tore the envelope open and started reading the letter.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY 

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore  
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr Son,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall  
Deputy Headmistress_

"Who was it from, dear?" Chi-Chi asked. Gohan handed her the letter. After reading it over twice, she said, "Gohan, I don't think this is a hoax."

"But it can't be real, can it?"

"Well, after all that's gone on in your life, who are you to disbelieve something like this? Besides, there's an owl on the roof, and it hasn't moved all day."

Gohan opened a window so that he could stick his head out and see if there truly was an owl on the roof, but before he could stick his head out, a tawny-coloured owl flew through the open window and landed on his shoulder.

"I think you should write a response," Chi-Chi suggested, "Tell them you'll go… Oh, this is so exciting…"

Gohan nodded and headed upstairs. In a matter of minutes, he had tied his reply to the leg of the owl and was watching as it flew off towards the sunset.

He was going to Hogwarts.

*          *          *

It was just two days later when Gohan was awoken by someone tapping at his window. He opened it and an owl flew in, dropping a letter in Gohan's hands before turning round and flying off again. Once again, Gohan tore the envelope away hastily and read the letter.

_Dear Mr Son,_

_Your enrolment in Hogwarts has been accepted. As our records show that you are from a Muggle family, we will be sending a Hogwarts representative to your house on 28 July to take you shopping for your books and equipment. Please ensure that you will be available from 9:00 onwards that day._

_Yours Sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall  
Deputy Headmistress_

Gohan bounded downstairs to have breakfast, talking excitedly to Chi-Chi about the letter.

"28 July?" Chi-Chi muttered as Gohan nodded excitedly, "That's today, isn't it?"

No sooner had Chi-Chi asked then there was a knock on the door. Gohan ran to the door and answered it to find a huge man who's face was almost hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, so that all you could see were his eyes, glinting like black beetles from under the hair.

"Yeh must be Gohan," the giant of a man said when he saw the boy who answered the door.

"Yes, sir, I am," Gohan replied politely, opening the door to allow the giant to squeeze through.

"Sir?" the giant laughed loudly, "Nobody calls me 'Sir'. Name's Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. But yeh can jus' call me Hagrid."

Chi-Chi entered the room and saw the man standing there. "You must be from Hogwarts? I'm Chi-Chi, Gohan's mother. Do come in and make yourself comfortable."

Hagrid looked a little taken aback by the hospitality that the Son family was displaying towards him. Most Muggles were terrified of him. He told Chi-chi exactly that as she led him into the living room and had him sit down.

"Scared of you? Oh, no, why would we be?" Chi-Chi laughed a little, "You're no bigger than my father is, so I suppose we're used to it. Gohan, why don't you go upstairs and get ready."

Hagrid and Chi-Chi spoke briefly while Gohan ran up the stairs and into his bedroom. He tried on numerous combinations of clothes, trying to get something that looked good. He wanted to make a good impression. He finally settled on a pair of jeans and a black t-shirt. Wishing he wasn't part Saiya-jin so that he could get his hair to obey the will of the comb, he headed back downstairs to catch the end of the conversation.

"London, o' course," Hagrid was saying, "Yeh can find all th' stuff on the list in London, if yeh know where t' look. That's why Hogwarts sends people like me to Muggle houses in th' firs' year, so we can show th' new students where t' find it all." Hagrid caught sight of Gohan, "Don' forget to bring the list, Gohan."

Gohan ran back upstairs and grabbed the list. He hadn't looked at it before, but he took the time to quickly glance through it:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY 

Uniform  
_First-year students will require:_

_Three sets of plain work robes (black)_ _One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_ _One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_ _One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)_ Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags 

Set Books  
_All students should have a copy each of the following:_

The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)_ by Miranda Goshawk  
_A History of Magic _by Belinda Bagshot  
_Magical Theory_ by Adalbert Waffling  
_A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration_ by Emeric Switch  
_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ by Phyllida Spore  
_Magical Drafts and Potions_ by Arsenius Jigger  
_Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them_ by Newt Scamander  
_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_ by Quentin Trimble_

Other Equipment:

1 wand  
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)  
1 set glass or crystal phials  
1 telescope  
1 set brass scales

_Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad_

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FISRT-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS_

The list was unbelievable. Gohan had never been to London before, but he seriously doubted that all this could be found there. He made his way downstairs once again.

"Gohan," his mother called him over, "Hagrid says wizards have different currency to us, so he's not sure how much your school stuff will cost." Chi-Chi handed her son 100 pound note, "I'm sure this will cover it, though."

"If it works out t' be more than he needs, I'll get him to open a bank account a Gringotts," Hagrid suggested, "Safest place in th' world to keep anything… except maybe Hogwarts."

"That's a good idea," Chi-Chi agreed, "That way Gohan won't have to go through the hassle of exchanging pounds for… what was it again?"

"Galleons."

"Ah, yes, that's right… Gohan won't have to go through the hassle of exchanging pounds for galleons every year."

Soon it was time for Hagrid and Gohan to be on their way. Waving goodbye to Chi-Chi, Gohan and Hagrid started walking to the nearest Train Station, which would take them to London.

Gohan could hardly wait.


	2. Chapter the Second

Harry Potter and the Saiya-jin Wizard 

DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter doesn't own DBZ. Neither do I.

Chapter the Second 

It wasn't long until Gohan and Hagrid were at Gringotts, the wizard bank. As it turned out, a hundred pounds was a small fortune in the wizard world, and soon Gohan was staring into a vault filled with mounds of gold, silver and bronze coins.

"Yer should 'ave enough in there to last five years at least," Hagrid guessed as he helped Gohan pile come currency into a bag, "Th' gold ones are Galleons, th' silver ones are Sickles and th' bronze ones are Knuts. 29 Knuts to a Sickle, 17 Sickles to a Galleon - it's easy enough."

Once Gohan had removed enough wizard money from his vault to last him the year, he closed and locked the vault, pocketing the key. It wasn't long until both Gohan and Hagrid were blinking the sunlight as their eyes protested the change in lighting conditions from the Gringotts tunnels to the sunlit streets of Diagon Alley, the hidden street in London where Gohan was going to buy his wizard equipment.

"We should get yer robes firs'," Hagrid said, "Madam Malkin's is th' best place to get 'em."

Hagrid left Gohan to get his robes, muttering something about "those ruddy Gringotts carts" and needing a "pick me up". Despite not knowing what in the nine hells Hagrid was talking about, Gohan proceeded into the shop and was shepherded into a small fitting room while a witch (Gohan guessed with was Madam Maulkin) worked on the necessary alterations.

"Gohan!" a shocked, yet friendly, voice called out to Gohan as he entered the room.

"Dean?" Gohan recognised the boy in front of him immediately as one of the kids in his class from school.

"Isn't this cool? I couldn't believe it when I got the letter! I thought it must have been a hoax, but here I am! I've learnt so much about the wizard world already – it's really fascinating! They don't have electricity or cars or…" Dean fired the words out like a machine-gun. Gohan didn't mind however, because Dean had finally stopped talking about football (Dean was an avid West Ham fan, and usually never shut up about the Premier League). It was good to know that Gohan would at least have a friendly face at Hogwarts.

Dean and Gohan talked a little about what they expected Hogwarts to be like before the conversation turned round to football. Soon Dean's robes were done and he was lead out of the shop by a short dumpy witch. Hagrid, who had just returned from the Leaky Cauldron (the pub that doubles as an entrance to Diagon Alley), pointed to the witch and explained who she was.

"That's Professor Sprout. She teaches Herbology."

"So does everyone at Hogwarts take muggles to Diagon Alley?"

"Not at all," Hagrid muttered bitterly, "Ev'ry year, Dumbledore asks for volunteers, an' every year it comes down to me an' Professor Sprout. All the other teachers say they're too busy, but that's the second day in a row I've seen Quirrel at th' Leaky Cauldron. Surely he could help out if he's got that much spare time…"

Gohan was so enthralled about everything in the wizard world that he didn't realise that he was now at Flourish and Blotts, a rather large bookshop. Gohan bought all his schoolbooks (and a few others that caught his eye), and was then led to various other shops to buy his cauldron, scales, telescope and potion ingredients, keeping up a conversation with Hagrid about anything he saw.

"Why's everyone seem so excited today?" Gohan asked as he noticed the general cheerful atmosphere of places that should normally be dark and gloomy, like the apothecary Gohan got his potion ingredients from.

"Yesterday someone famous came back after ten years," Hagrid explained, "Yeh'll meet him soon enough – he'll be goin' t' Hogwarts with yeh. Name's Harry Potter, an' I'll be a blast-ended skrewt if he won' be mentioned in at least one of those books yeh've just bought. We should probably get yer animal before all the owls are sold out. Owls are in fashion at th' moment, so yeh'll be wanting one of those. They're dead useful, carryin' yer mail and the like."

Gohan doubted that the Owl Emporium could run out of owls – there were literally hundreds of them perched around the dimly lit shop. Gohan had no idea what to look for in an owl, but a smaller-than-normal screech owl soon landed on Gohan's shoulder and started nibbling affectionately at his earlobe – proving once and for all that pets choose their owners, not the other way around.

Gohan only had his wand to get now, and was soon inside Ollivander's, who claimed to be "Makers of Fine Wands since 382BC". Mr Ollivander turned out to be a creepy yet friendly enough old man who seemed determined to find the right wand for Gohan.

"The important thing to remember about magic is that while you can use anybody's wand to perform magic, you won't get the best results unless you use the wand that's right for you," Mr Ollivander explained to the rather perplexed Gohan as a floating tape measure started measuring parts of Gohan's body that he was sure were irrelevant to the task at hand, "And of course, the wand chooses the wizard, so I'll know when the right one comes up."

Mr Ollivander handed a wand to Gohan. "Yew, ten inches, phoenix tail feather," he stated as he handed the wand to Gohan, "Well, don't just stand there! Wave it around a bit."

Gohan was about to wave the wand when Ollivander grabbed it from his hand. "No, no, no," he muttered as he grabbed another box, "Try this one – mahogany, twelve and a half inches, dragon heartstring."

Gohan took the wand and waved it a little. Sparks started flying out of the end of it. Ollivander looked rather pleased as he took the wand from Gohan and returned it to the box.

"Well, the right wand after just two attempts," he muttered smugly to himself, "And after all the trouble I had with that Harry Potter yesterday, I thought I'd lost my touch."

Another reference to Harry Potter – Gohan could hardly wait to get home and start reading up on Harry to find out what exactly was going on. After paying for his wand, he found himself back on a muggle train, heading back to his home in Surrey. Before the train headed off, Hagrid handed Gohan an envelope.

"Yer ticket," Hagrid explained, "First o' September, Kings Cross Station – read yer ticket forth' details."

*          *          *

If Gohan had one fault (and let's face it, everyone has at least one), it was that he was horribly impatient. When you're about to face a deadly enemy in a martial-arts battle, this can be a good thing, but when you're waiting for a certain day to approach, it's not so pleasant. Magic was the only thing on Gohan's mind for the month before his train journey, and every night he found himself staying up as late as Chi-Chi would allow, reading with fascination about famous wizards… including Harry Potter.

Harry Potter, it turned out, had saved the world when, as a baby, he defeated an evil wizard known as Voldemort. He had spent the last ten years living in the muggle world. The full story was so fascinating to Gohan, and with little surprise, after all, they both share the common experience of being famous for saving the world using a hidden power they never knew existed - of course, thanks to Mr Satan, Gohan's fame was limited to about eight people.

After a torturous month of waiting, it was finally the first of September. Gohan made sure all his stuff – robes, books, wands, and all his other wizarding supplies – were safely packed and then spent half an hour selecting the perfect outfit to wear on the train to Hogwarts, not wanting to wear his robes until he was away from muggles. Gohan didn't usually care about his appearance, but today was a special day, and he was going to look good. He finally settled on a pair of blue jeans with a black muscle shirt. He bounded down the stairs to breakfast.

Chi-Chi drove Gohan to the station. Gohan pushed his trolley into the station and looked around. Somewhere in this station was a train that would take him to a world he never knew existed.

"What platform is your train on?" Chi-Chi asked her son, a little nervous about the odd glanced she and Gohan were getting from people who had obviously never seen an eleven-year-old boy pushing a trolley containing a large trunk and a small screech owl. Gohan checked his ticket.

"Nine and three quarters," he replied, glancing around. He saw Platform 9 and right next to it, Platform 10. There was no Platform 9¾ to be seen.

"Gohan, does your ticket say where to find this platform?" Chi-Chi asked, hoping that it did, because Hagrid had obviously forgotten to tell Gohan how to get there.

"No, it just says 11am, Platform Nine and Three Quarters," Gohan read from the ticket. He saw that it was quarter to eleven – if he didn't hurry, he'd miss the train!

Saviour came in the form of a loud voice yelling across the station. "Gohan! Hey, Gohan! Over here!" It was Dean Thomas, the West Ham fan that Gohan went to school with. He ran up to Gohan and Chi-Chi.

"Hi, Gohan, hello Ms. Son," he panted as he caught his breath, "We'd better hurry if we're going to catch the train."

"You know how?"

"Of course. Professor Sprout warned me that Hagrid would probably forget to tell you. I've been looking for you for ages! See that barricade between Platforms Nine and Ten? Just run at it and you should go through. Just don't think about crashing."

"Have you done this before?" Gohan asked nervously.

"No, but I've been watching people do it since I arrived. Look, there goes one now." A boy who looked to be about fifth-year pushed his trolley towards the barricade and disappeared.

"Okay, I guess I could try it. See you later, Mum."

"Bye, Gohan. Be good and learn as much as you can," Chi-Chi said, her voice wavering. She had been separated from Gohan for a year only once before, when Gohan was kidnapped at age four. She couldn't imagine life without Gohan again – even if it was only for a year.

Gohan pushed his trolley towards the barricade. Taking a few quick steps, he sped up and closed his eyes, expecting to hear a crash…

He opened his eyes and saw a large scarlet steam engine. A sign above him read _Platform Nine and Three Quarters_. Dean emerged after him.

"Told you. Now let's find a seat on the train before they all get taken."

Gohan and Dean pushed past a few people to get to the neared door on the train. They passed a family of redheaded people, talking excitedly about something. Gohan was sure he heard the name "Potter".

Gohan and Dean sit own in the carriage, talking about football, as one does when one speaks with Dean Thomas. It wasn't long until a sandy-haired boy had approached them.

"Hi, Dean," he greeted Dean with his thick Irish accent, "I was hoping I'd find you."

"Hi, Seamus," Dean said before turning to Gohan, "Gohan, this is Seamus Finnigan. I met him in Diagon Alley, just after I'd run into you."

It wasn't long until the train had started pulling away from the platform. Gohan, Seamus and Dean talked about many things – wizardry, football, a sport called Quidditch that Seamus seemed to like… After a while, another boy joined the group. His name was Neville Longbottom, who had been searching the train for the last half hour to find his lost toad. Despite still being toadless, he was eager to share a discovery that he had made on his search.

"You know who I saw in the last carriage?" Neville paused for suspense before continuing excitedly, "Harry Potter! I saw his scar and everything."

"Really?" Gohan asked. Neville nodded. "Hey, let's all go back and meet him – we are going to be in the same year as him after all."

Seamus and Dean were enthusiastic about Gohan's suggestion. They said their goodbyes to Neville, who had decided to continue looking for his toad, and made their way to the last carriage. Before Gohan opened the door, he heard snatches of conversation.

"You're going to fight us, are you?" one voice sneered.

"Unless you get out now," another voice answered. Gohan opened the door to see a standoff. On one side were a small, pale looking boy with two beefier, tougher-looking boys on either side of him, and on the other side was on of the redheads Gohan had seen on the station platform and a boy who could only be Harry Potter.

"What do you want?" the pale boy drawled, glancing at Gohan, Seamus and Dean, "I'd leave while you still can if I were you."

Gohan glared fiercely at the boy in front of him. Being the intelligent and reserved boy he is, he had experienced his fair share of bullies, and would not stand aside and let someone else get bullied. "No," he replied coldly, "I think I'll stay here. It would be wise if you left, however."

Gohan raised one hand and held it out in front of him. He knew that the pale boy would probably try to use magic of some sort in the fight, so Gohan reasoned that it was fair for him to use ki attacks. The boy's eyes flickered for a second, before he left, his two bodyguards following.

"Who was that?" Gohan asked Harry, who was looking at him with curiosity.

"Draco Malfoy," came the reply. Harry filled Gohan in on the whole Draco experience. After a few introductions the five boys (Harry, Ron, Gohan, Seamus and Dean) started conversing as if they'd known each other for years. As the train started slowing down, they changed into their robes and got ready for what lay ahead.

*          *          *

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" Hagrid called as people stepped off the train. Gohan, Harry, Dean, Seamus and Ron made their way over to the giant, along with a number of other children. One girl, who had bushy brown hair and large front teeth glared at the five of them, until she saw Gohan, then she looked away.

"What's her problem?" Dean whispered.

"That's Hermione Granger," Ron whispered back, "We met her earlier. She's a pain in the neck."

Soon enough, the group of first years fount themselves at a large black lake. On the other side of the lake, on top of a large mountain was a castle that just had to be Hogwarts.

"No more'n four to a boat," Hagrid's voice commanded as a fleet of little boats arrived, ready to take everyone across the lake. After a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide, Gohan, Dean, Ron and Harry found themselves sharing a boat, while Seamus climbed into a boat also accommodating Hermione and Neville. Within minutes, they were at a harbour underneath the mountain. The group alighted their boats and followed Hagrid up a flight of steps to a huge oak door. Hagrid knocked three times on the door…


	3. Chapter the Third

Harry Potter and the Saiya-jin Wizard 

Yes, I'm still alive! Sorry about the delay in the fic, but I haven't been in much of a mood to write lately. I haven't been slacking off, though. I've been thinking about the direction I'm going to take this fic in. Hopefully, it'll be as successful as Toki no Senshi, the fanfic that put me on the map, so to speak. And for those of you who are still wondering, the Ping-Pong Saga isn't dead… it's just sleeping until I work out what I'm doing with it.

Also, I've been getting a lot of questions, in reviews and e-mails. I can't remember them all, but here are Three Quick Answers to Three Quick Questions:

Which book is this set in?  
This is based around the events of the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone. I thought that was a good enough place to start How does Gohan know Dean Thomas?  
I thought I'd explained this one, but in case you missed it, he knew Dean from the elementary school they had both attended in the Muggle world. Is this a Gohan torture fic?  
No. I don't like torture fics, and will never write one. That doesn't mean that there won't be Gohan torture in here, though, because 11-year-old boys do a good job of torturing themselves without outside help. 

DISCLAIMER: If I really owned DBZ and Harry Potter, do you think I'd waste my time and money going to Uni?

Chapter the Third 

The door swung open to reveal a tall witch wearing emerald green robes. The entire crowd took one look at the stern look on her face and were immediately silenced. Gohan was the only person unfazed by the woman – eleven years of living with his mother had desensitised him to even the sternest faces.

 "The firs'-years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid stated simply. The witch cast a disdainful glance in Hagrid's direction.

"I will take them from here, Hagrid."

The first years followed the Professor through the corridors of Hogwarts. Gohan stuck close to Ron, Seamus and Harry as the four students took in their surroundings. Occasionally, they would here the sound of loud voices, which they assumed were the other students. The Professor took the students into a small empty chamber.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," McGonagall began, "We will soon commence the start of term banquet. However, before you may sit down, you must be sorted into your houses. The houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has in the past produced outstanding witches and wizards. Whilst at Hogwarts, you will have classes with your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend your free time in the house common room. During the year, your triumphs will earn your house points, but misbehaviour will lose points for your house. At the end of the year, the house with the most points will win the House Cup.

"The Sorting Ceremony will begin in a few minutes. I suggest you use this time to smarten yourselves up," McGonagall cast a withering glance at Gohan, who's hair was, in true Saiya-jin style, all over the place. Gohan knew that he couldn't do anything with his hair – his genetics ensured that it would go all over the place whether he wanted it to or not – but he decided to frantically try to flatten it down at least until McGonagall left the room.

"How do you think they sort us?" Harry whispered to Ron.

"Some sort of test," Ron's reply came, "Fred told me it hurts, but I think he was joking."

Harry and Gohan shared worried glances. They had both begun reading their textbooks before school had started, but neither knew how to perform any spells yet. Hermione, on the other hand, seemed to be excited at the opportunity, and was in the middle of telling Neville, Seamus and Dean about how many spells she already knew.

"I don't care what house I'm put in, as long as she's not there," Ron whispered to Gohan, causing both boys to collapse into a fit of giggles. Hermione shot them a dirty look.

"I don't know what you two are laughing at," Hermione said to Ron, "After seeing that pitiful attempt at magic you did on the train, I'd be…"

"Knock it off," Ron muttered and walked away, leaving Hermione fuming.

Professor McGonagall returned to the room. "Form a line and follow me," she instructed. Ron, Gohan and Harry joined the line and followed the professor out the door and into the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was the largest room that Gohan had ever seen, not counting the Room of Spirit and Time, which was actually more of a self-contained dimension than a room. The Hall was lit by thousands of candles and contained five long tables – four of which housed students and one for the teachers. McGonagall led the children to the front of the Hall, and the line came to a halt in front of the other students. Professor McGonagall placed a four-legged stool in front of the first-year students. On top the stool was a tattered wizard's hat. Gohan stood there, feeling stupid and wondering what the hat was for, when suddenly the hat began singing.

[A/N: For reasons regarding both Copyright and laziness, the Sorting Hat Song will not be included in this fic. If you want to know how it goes, read the book.]

After the song, Gohan breathed a sigh of relief. If the song was anything to go by, all he had to do was try on the hat, and that would sort him into one of the houses. Professor McGonagall stepped forward.

"When I call your name, come forward and put on the hat," she commanded, "Abbot, Hannah!"

A girl with blonde pigtails came forward and placed the hat on.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the hat shouted. One of the four student tables started cheering as the girl made her way to the table.

"Bones, Susan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Gohan, Harry and Ron stared blankly at the sea of faces in front of them. It would be a while until Harry and Gohan would be called to the hat, and longer still for Ron. The threesome looked around for something to occupy them, but there was really nothing to do but watch as people nervously approached the hat.

"Granger, Hermione!"

Hermione ran eagerly towards the hat and placed it on her head.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Ron gave Harry and Gohan a pained expression. Every other Weasley had been in Gryffindor, and Ron was sure he would be no different. And now he was stuck with Hermione.

"Potter, Harry!" McGonagall's voice interrupted Gohan and Harry as they were trying to comfort Ron. Harry nervously approached the hat and placed it on his head. Gohan and Ron waited, as did the rest of the school. The hat was taking forever to make its decision…

"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat finally announced, as the Gryffindor table immediately started cheering. Gohan now saw that Hagrid wasn't exaggerating – Harry was a huge celebrity, although Harry seemed a little uncomfortable with the attention.

"Son, Gohan!" McGonagall called as soon as the Hall had settled down. Gohan walked forward and put the hat on, trying his hardest not to throw up with nerves. As soon as the hat went over his eyes, he could hear the voice of the Sorting Hat.

"Ah, another hero then?" the Sorting Hat said as it began the process of sorting, "Someone else who's saved the world. And a smart one too. So where to put you? Your intelligence would make you more than welcome in Ravenclaw… or of course I could put you in Slytherin. Your dark background would make you right at home there…"

"I don't have a dark background," Gohan whispered into the hat. He honestly had no idea what the hat was talking about, and if it qualified him as a Slytherin, then he didn't really want to know.

"Of course you do – it's in your blood, your very being. You'd make an excellent Slytherin, but then there's that whole saving the world thing. Well, I guess I should be on the safe side and put you in…"

Gohan squirmed as the hat paused. He hated this.

"GRYFFINDOR!" The Gryffindor table started cheering as Gohan made his way over and sat next to Harry.

"What took you so long?" a boy who just had to be one of the Weasleys asked as Gohan sat down, "Are you and Harry trying to break the record for sitting there with the Sorting Hat on?"

"Quiet," said an older boy who from the look of him was also a Weasley. Gohan could tell from Ron's earlier description that this was Percy, "The hat's about to sort Ron."

Sure enough, Ron had just placed the Sorting Hat on his head. Unlike Gohan and Harry, the hat didn't hesitate when it came to Ron, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, got to his feet and addressed the students. "Welcome!" he said, "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we being, I'd like to say a few words: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" He sat back down as everyone cheered.

"What was that about?" Gohan asked Percy, hoping that his English had cut out and that Dumbledore wasn't mad and had made perfect sense.

"Don't worry about it," Percy replied, "Dumbledore's a genius, but he's a bit mad. He does something like that every year."

Food suddenly appeared on the plates in front of the students. Every kind of food imaginable was right there in front of the boys. Gohan, being a Saiya-jin, took exactly thirty seconds to gape in awe at the food before he started to fill his plate. Harry wasn't too far behind, having been on the verge of starvation in his life with the Dursleys. Ron just stared at the two as they piled as much food as possible into their mouths, occasionally stopping to swallow or answer a question.

"How on earth…?" Ron began to ask Gohan as he piled his plate for a fifth time.

"You answered you own question with that," Gohan replied. Ron was about to ask Gohan what he meant, but was soon caught up in Neville's explanation of how he first came to the world of magic. After Neville's story, everyone sated at Gohan.

"What about you, Gohan?" one of the Weasley twins asked, "I'm guessing you're a Muggle. It's obvious from the overwhelmed expression on your face."

Not really having a story about how magic saved his life, Gohan decided to tell his fellow Gryffindors about how he came to England. "Well, my father got killed a while ago, and Mum was having problems living in Japan, because everything reminded her of Dad. So we moved to England about six months ago, then I got the letter, and here I am."

The hall went silent again as Dumbledore stood up yet again. "I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.

"First-years should be aware that the forest in the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. Certain older students should also take note of that." Dumbledore cast a glance at the Weasley twins before continuing, "Mr Filch, the caretaker, would like me to remind you that no magic is to be used between classes in the corridors.

Quidditch trials will be held next week. Anyone interested in representing their House should contact Madam hooch.

"Finally, the third floor corridor on the right-hand side of the castle is out of bounds to everyone who doesn't want to die a painful death."

Percy frowned at the last statement, "That's odd. Usually he gives a reason why we're not allowed somewhere. You'd think we would have told the Prefects at least."

"And now," Dumbledore said, once the Hall had been silenced again, "Let's sing the school song! Everyone pick your favourite tune!"

The school began singing the song, which was absolutely ridiculous, to a different tune. Everyone finished at a different time, and when it was done, Dumbledore dismissed the students from the Hall.

The Gryffindor first-years followed Percy though out of the Great Hall and up the staircase, past portraits that stared and whispered as they walked by. Harry was about to ask how much farther it was when the group came to a halt.

Somewhere near the ceiling of the corridor, a heap of chairs were floating. Percy took a step forward, and a chair crashed at his feet.

"Peeves," Percy told the first-years, "A poltergeist." Percy faced the chairs again and yelled, "Peeves, go away or I'll tell the Bloody Baron," referring to the Slytherin ghost, whom Gohan assumed could control the poltergeist. Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, but not before throwing a chair right at Gohan's head. Gohan reacted the only way his instinct allowed – blasting the chair to bits. As the last fragments of chair hit the ground, Gohan became aware of the entire school watching him. He was about to ask what was going on when he noticed that Percy had his wand drawn, and was pointing it right at Gohan.

*          *          *

Well, that's all for now. Don't worry, though, because I have a month of from Uni, so I've got plenty of time to update now. Hopefully I will be able to get into the meat of this fic before Uni starts up again. If you have any suggestions, comments, questions, etc, feel free to review or e-mail me. I'll start answering questions before every chapter, if I have any to answer.   
=^-^=


	4. Chapter the Fourth

Harry Potter and the Saiya-jin Wizard 

Yes, Chapter Four and planning more! Yes, I know that was lame =^-^= This chapter will be a long'un, mainly because I may not have time to update again soon.

Anyway, instead of continuing the Few Quick Questions tradition I started last chapter, I thought I would honour one keen reader (Gappy) who left me a list of problems with the fanfic. On a personal note, I like the fact that some people are taking the time to write some constructive criticism, so thanks! Here's a list of the problems, and my explanations:

You keep messing up the ages.  
I'm guessing from your referral to 'Hercule' further on that you are more familiar with the English dub of DBZ. The reason Gohan's age is different, then, is because I used the Japanese age. Why? Because his Japanese age, which meant that he defeated Cell when he was 9, makes a hell of a lot more sense (did anyone else notice that in the dub Gohan started high school at age 18?). Your questions about other ages (such as Goten's) stem directly from this.  
Incidentally, I did make _one_ mistake with the ages in the last chapter when I got the Japanese and English versions mixed up. But I'll leave you to laugh over that in silence. He [Gohan] knows about his dark nature.  
No, no I didn't. I have gone through all three chapters (plus the one below), and can't find any reference to Gohan acknowledging his dark side. In fact, as the fic progresses, I'll be having Gohan deny having a dark side. I think you may be referring to the Sorting Hat in Chapter 3 (?) saying Gohan had a dark side that made him ideal for Slytherin. That will be explained in future chapters. I really doubt he thinks of himself as a hero.  
He may not admit it to anyone else, but if you look real closely, you can tell that Gohan knows he's a hero. Making connections between himself and Harry Potter privately isn't like he's shouting out to the world "I'M A HERO!" I admit that would be out of character, but I think that deep down inside, Gohan does think of himself as a hero. You make is seem that Gohan wanted the fame and that Hercule took it away from him.  
Well, there's no denying that Hercule took the fame away from him. I have re-read the part I think you're talking about (which for the rest of my readers, is in Chapter 2), and I can't really see how I made Gohan want the fame. Personally, I do think since there's no evidence against Gohan wanting the fame, then he may in fact want it. After all, how many 11-year-olds don't want to be famous? 

Anyway, thanks for your critique. Even if I have torn it apart, I appreciate it! =^-^=

Chapter the Fourth 

"Inexcusable," Professor McGonagall muttered as she glared at Gohan, "Utterly inexcusable."

Gohan, for his part, didn't know what was going on. After stopping all movement in the castle by blowing up a chair that Peeves the poltergeist had thrown at him, McGonagall had dragged Gohan to her office, where she was muttering the same two words over and over again while Dumbledore, who had invited himself to this occasion, was looking Gohan up and down.

"Excuse me," Gohan decided that before he gets expelled, he should find out what he's getting expelled for, "What exactly did I do?"

McGonagall glared at Gohan, using the withering gaze that she had perfected over years of teaching Fred and George Weasely, "Mr Son, I am neither blind nor stupid. Don't try to deny what I, as well as the entire Gryffindor house saw."

"Perhaps I should clear this one up," Dumbledore, who unlike McGonagall looked more amused than angry, "Gohan, do you know what happened when Peeves threw that chair at you?"

"I, uh, shot a ki blast at it?" Gohan answered with a question.

"And do you know what this 'ki' blast, as you call it, is?"

Gohan didn't quite understand where Dumbledore was going. As he called it? Everyone who could fire a ki blast called it so. Then again, ki was a Japanese word, so it's perfectly understandable that his terminology was misunderstood. He decided to explain the basics as best he could, "Well, it's kind of like using you own energy, what we call ki, to… uh, well, you see, you concentrate in focusing your energy into your hand and give it form and…"

Dumbledore sighed, interrupting Gohan's much-confused explanation, "Yes, I am well aware of how a _Bahornara_ spell works. What I meant was, did you know that it was a form of magic?"

Gohan stared back at Dumbledore through his half-moon spectacles, "A spell? No, I've always used it in martial arts, I guess I never thought of it as anything but a fighting technique."

"So if you didn't know it was a spell, then you obviously wouldn't know that it is, in fact, a Dark Magic spell, and illegal?"

"No, sir."

Dumbledore looked at McGonagall, "This was obviously just a mistake, Professor. Surely we could let him off with a warning?"

McGonagall glared at Gohan once more. It was her first instinct to expel the boy, who she assumed was acting more ignorant than he really was, but Dumbledore outranked the witch. "Very well, Professor. Gohan, you should know that the Bahornara spell, as well as any other spells that you knew prior to entering Hogwarts, should be promptly forgotten. Next time you are seen using such a spell, you will be expelled from Hogwarts. You may go."

As Gohan left the room, he heard Dumbledore and McGonagall once again in heated debate over the student. "First day and already in trouble… I'm off to a great start."

*          *          *

"Look, there he is!"

"Never mind that, there _he_ is!"

"Did you see his scar?"

"Did you see what he did to that chair?"

Gohan and Harry were besieged with whispers as they left the dormitory the next day. Gohan and Harry were both unused to this kind of attention, and to be honest, they could do without it – particularly when trying to find their way to class.

The stairways in Hogwarts were plentiful, but the problem was that they were all different. Some would change directions at certain times of the week, and some had missing stairs. Doors, too, caused a problem, particularly when they wouldn't open unless you asked nicely, or turned out to be a wall pretending to be a door. The corridors were also guarded by the caretaker, Argus Filch, and his cat, Mrs Norris, who would follow students, just waiting for them to slip up.

The lessons themselves were no picnic either. Every Wednesday, Gohan and the others found themselves shivering on top of Gryffindor tower, as they tried to remember the names of countless planets and constellations, which all looked so very different from the stars Gohan used to look at in Japan.

Other lessons were also difficult to bear. Gohan had, on the very first day, made a connection between Professor McGonagall and his mother, and when the students took their first Transfiguration lesson, he saw that he was absolutely correct.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," the deputy headmistress began her first lesson, "Anyone messing around in my classes will leave and not come back."

She then transformed her desk into a pig. The students couldn't wait to have a go themselves, but it would be a long time before they started turning furniture into animals. After a lot of note taking, each student set about the arduous task of turning a match into a pin.

Magic was like nothing else Gohan had ever studied, in that he didn't understand it at all. He could break down Einstein's Theory of Relativity, but making a match look like a pin befuddled him. Most of the other students were no better; by the end to the lesson, only Hermione had transformed her match into a pin.

One class that Gohan was sure he'd be good at was Defence Against the Dark Arts. After all, he had saved the world against evil creations countless times, so he already knew what to do. Unfortunately, the lessons were a joke. Professor Quirrell was a strange teacher, extremely nervous, and Gohan wondered how he could stand up to vampires and zombies in the stories he told them. He wore a he wore a turban, which was always surrounded by an awful stench. The Weasley twins insisted that the turban was stuffed full of garlic, so that Quirrell was protected against a vampire that said it would be back for him.

On Friday, Gohan made his way to breakfast, after getting lost and ending up in a Charms classroom, to find that Harry and Ron had already sat down and begun eating. He sat down next to his two friends, who were deep in conversation about the day's Potions lesson.

"Snape's head of the Slytherin house," Ron told Gohan and Harry, "They say he always favours them."

The post arrived, with hundreds of owls fluttering around the Great Hall to deliver the letters to each student. As usual, Mercury, Gohan's owl, landed in front of Gohan with a letter from his mother, filling him in about all that was going on back in Surrey. Not quite as usual, Harry's owl, Hedwig, also arrived with a letter – the first that Harry had received after arriving at Hogwarts. Harry tore it open and read it, before handing it to Gohan.

_Dear Harry,_

_I know you get Friday afternoon off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Bring Gohan, and any other friends you've made._

_Hagrid._

Harry wrote a reply and sent it off with Hedwig. It was a good thing the boys had that to look forward to, because the Potions class was pure torture for our three heroes.

Potions lessons were held in the dungeons of the Hogwarts castle, a place that got no heat and was creepy with its dark, dank conditions, and the pickled animals in glass jars around the walls. Snape himself was downright creepy, a pale man with a hooked nose, black hair that seemed unnatural given the colour of his skin, and eyes that pierced right through you. Like many other teachers, Snape started the class by taking the register. He paused at Harry's name.

"Ah, yes," he sneered, "Harry Potter. Out new – _celebrity_."

The next name on the register, Gohan Son, also caused Snape to pause. He bent right down and pushed his face near Gohan's, staring right into Gohan's face with those dark, empty eyes.

"If you dare to attempt another display like you did at the Banquet," Snape's voice was barely above a whisper, "I will show you some real dark magic. And I can assure you that it will be the last thing you are ever shown."

Snape got back up and looked at the class. "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," his voice was still barely above a whisper, and the class was hanging off every word, "There is no foolish wand-waving here, and I don't expect you to understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses. I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory and bottle death, providing you aren't a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

The speech was followed by silence. Harry, Ron and Gohan exchanged nervous glances.

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly, "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry looked at Gohan and Ron, who were equally as perplexed. Hermione's hand shot up into the air.

"I don't know, sir," came Harry's response.

"Tut, tut – fame isn't everything."

He turned to face Gohan.

"Son, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Hermione's hand remained in the air, stretching for all it's worth. Gohan didn't know what a bezoar was, let alone where to look for one.

"I have no idea."

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Son?"

Gohan didn't reply. Even if he didn't want to read his books before coming (which he did, since this new world was so fascinating), his mother would have forced him. As it was, he'd read all the compulsory books for the year, plus a good chunk of the other books he'd bought that day in Diagon Alley. But did Snape honestly expect him to remember everything in _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_?

Snape ignored Hermione's hand and turned back to Potter.

"Okay, let's try again. What's the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

By now Hermione was standing up with a pained expression on her face, as though her arm was being ripped out of its socket.

"I don't know," Harry replied calmly, "But I think Hermione does."

A few people laughed. Snape quietened his class with a single steely glance.

"Sit down, you foolish girl!" Snape snapped at Hermione, "For your information, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion that is so strong it's known as the Draught of Living Death.  A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which is also known as aconite. Well? Why aren't you writing this down?"

All the students in the classroom started rummaging for quills and parchment. Above the noise, Snape added, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor from both Potter and Son."

Things went from bad to worse for Gryffindor as the lesson continued. Snape put the students to work brewing a simple potion that would cure boils. He stormed among the groups of students as they worked, stopping to criticize everyone, even Hermione. The only person he seemed to like was Draco Malfoy, which the boys took as not being a good sign. Snape's praise of Malfoy's stewed slugs was interrupted, however, by a loud hissing sound. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus' cauldron and their potion was now running across the floor. Within seconds, the entire class were standing on stools, except for Neville, who was absolutely drenched in the potion.

"Idiot boy!" Snape yelled, "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire? Take him to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus as he turned to Harry and Ron, who were working next to Neville at the time.

"Potter, why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point from Gryffindor."

As the climbed the steps out of the dungeon later, Harry was feeling really bad. He'd lost two points for Gryffindor in his first week – why was Snape picking on him?

"Snape's always taking points of Fred and George," Ron told him, "Don't worry about it."

At three to five, Harry, Gohan and Ron made their way to a small wooden house on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. After introducing Ron to Hagrid, Harry and Gohan started telling him about the horrors of their first week. They were pleased to find out that Hagrid, too, hated Filch, and Hagrid echoed Ron's sentiments about Snape.

"But he seemed to really hate me," Harry replied.

"Why should he?" Hagrid asked rhetorically. But Harry noticed that Hagrid didn't make eye contact as he said it.

During the conversation, Gohan noticed a piece of paper that was lying on the table. It was a clipping from the _Daily Prophet_:

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST  
Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of dark witches or wizards unknown.  
Gringotts' goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.  
 'But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you,' said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.

Gohan had no idea that Gringotts had been broken into. As Ron started telling Hagrid all about his brothers who had previously graduated, Gohan passed the cutting to Harry.

"Hagrid!" Harry interrupted the discussion, "That Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! We might've been there when we were there!"

Hagrid once again avoided Harry's eyes. He grunted and offered the boys a rock cake, which almost broke one of Gohan's teeth. As the boys walked back to the castle that evening, Harry was thinking heavily about the cutting. Hagrid had emptied a safe earlier that day. Had he emptied it just in time? What was it? And why was Snape out to get Harry?

*          *          *

It was a few days later when it appeared in the Gryffindor common room. A notice, proclaiming that flying lessons would be starting on Thursday, and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.

"Great. So I get to make a fool of myself in front of Malfoy," Harry moaned after reading the notice.

"You never know, Harry, you might be good at it," Ron replied, "Besides, I bet Malfoy's flying skills are all talk."

Gohan, for his part, was pretty darn excited about the lessons. He could, of course, fly unaided, and had been doing so since he was about five, but learning how to let something like a broomstick support your weight would be interesting.

The beginning of flying lessons started talk among the non-Muggle students about adventures they had on top of broomsticks, or on the Quidditch pitch. Ron and Dean Thomas had already had many arguments about Quidditch vs. Football. Ron couldn't see the point of a game with only one ball where no-one could fly, and had taken to prodding Dean's poster of the West Ham football team, trying to make the players move.

Hermione was particularly nervous about flying. Unlike, Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, History of Magic, and the other subjects the first-years studied, this could not be learned from a textbook. She had, however, gotten a list of tips from a book in the library, which she used to bore the Gryffindors stupid the morning before their first lesson. Fortunately, the post arrived and interrupted her.

Harry, much like every other day, had received no mail. He didn't care, to be honest, because the last thing he wanted was to be reminded of the Dursleys. Gohan had received a letter from Bulma, a family friend in Japan, and was halfway through reading about her son Trunks' first curse word (no doubt taught to him by his father) when he noticed Neville tearing a package open with about as much excitement as an 11-year-old boy can manage.

"It's a Remembrall!" he explained to Gohan, Harry and anyone else who was listening, "If you hold it tight like this and it turns red, it means you've forgotten something… oh…" It had, of course, turned red.

Malfoy was passing the Gryffindor table at the time. He gave a prolonged look at the Remembrall, but having not forgotten what Gohan was capable of on his first day at Hogwarts, he didn't dare go anywhere near Neville.

At three-thirty that afternoon, the Gryffindors and Slytherins made their way to the Quidditch pitch. It was perfect flying weather as the children approached twenty broomsticks lying in a line on the ground. Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived and looked over the students in front of her.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" she barked, "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up. Stick your right hand over the broom and say 'Up!'"

"UP!" everyone shouted at once. Harry's broom jumped right into his hand, but his was about the only one. Hermione's rolled over a few times, and Gohan's didn't seem to want to move at all. After trying to get it up a few more times, Gohan decided to risk some 'dark magic'. He remembered as a child a trick that his father used to do, in which he'd transfer his ki into a glass of water until the water left the glass and floated in the air. After checking that no one was paying attention to what he was doing, Gohan transferred some of his ki to the broomstick. When it was quivering with Gohan's energy, he commanded the broomstick up, surging the broom with one last burst of energy. The broomstick launched itself into Gohan's hand so hard that the handle splintered slightly as Gohan waited for the next step.

Madam Hooch then began demonstrating the correct mounting technique. She walked up and down the rows of students, correcting their grips. Harry, Ron and Gohan exchanged looks of triumph when Hooch spent a particularly long time correcting Malfoy's grip.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground," Madam Hooch instructed.

Neville, being as nervous as he was, had already pushed off though. Despite Hooch's commands to come back, Neville kept flying faster and higher with no control over the broom. He fell away, landing hard on the ground with a loud crack.

"Broken wrist," Hooch diagnosed after checking Neville over, "None of you are to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing. If any of those brooms leave the ground, you'll be out of Hogwarts faster than you can say Quidditch."

As soon as Hooch was out of earshot, Malfoy burst out into laughter. He darted forwards and snatched something out of the grass where Neville had fallen.

"Look," he said, holding up Neville's Remembrall, "It's that thing his gran sent him."

"Give that here, Malfoy," Harry warned. Malfoy smiled nastily.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to collect… like up a tree," before anyone could stop him, Malfoy had mounted a broom and taken off. As he reached the topmost branches of an oak tree, he yelled out, "Come and get it, Potter!"

Harry mounted his broom and kicked off, flying higher and faster until he was level with Malfoy. It seemed he had a talent for flying, and he was loving every minute of the experience.

"Give it here," Harry warned, "Or I'll knock you off your broom!"

Malfoy just smirked in reply. Harry began rushing towards Malfoy, but Malfoy dodged right.

"Catch it if you can!" he called to Harry as he threw the glass ball at the ground. Harry leant forwards and began a dive, reaching out for the Remembrall.  When it was just a foot from smashing to pieces, he grabbed it and fell to the safety of the grass.

"HARRY POTTER!"

Professor McGonagall was running towards him. He got to his feet, shaking with nerves.

"Never, have I seen a student – "

Professor McGonagall glared at Harry, " – How dare you – you could have broken you neck!"

"It wasn't his fault, Professor – "

"Silence, Miss Granger."

"But Malfoy – "

"That's enough, Mr Weasley. Come with me, Potter."

Harry followed McGonagall back into the castle. Gohan and Ron exchanged worried glances. Surely Harry would be expelled for this.

"Malfoy," Gohan said as he strode towards where Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were having a brief victory celebration. He grabbed Malfoy by the collar of his robes and glared into Malfoy's fearful eyes. He was just a fraction below Super Saiya-jin, and was almost _hoping_ that Malfoy would give him the excuse.

"If you _ever_ attempt to get a Gryffindor in trouble like that again, you little worm," Gohan threatened through clenched teeth, "I will personally make you wish for an early death. Even if it makes me look like a dark wizard, it will be worth it to watch you suffer all the pain that I can inflict on you."

Gohan dropped hi power level (and Malfoy for that matter) and rejoined the Gryffindors as Madam Hooch returned. The rest of the flying lesson was uneventful, except for the fact that Gohan's broomstick just would not get off the ground. In the end, he found himself flying unaided with the broomstick being carried between his thighs.

"This is ridiculous," he muttered to himself as he came in for a landing at the end of the lesson, "How can magic be this hard?"

*          *          *

Harry met up with Ron and Gohan again at dinnertime. It turned out that he wasn't expelled – or even punished. Rather, McGonagall had been so impressed with his flying abilities that he was placed on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"You're joking!" Ron said as Harry finished explaining what had happened, "You, playing Seeker? You must be the youngest player in about…"

"A century," Harry finished the sentence, "That's what Wood said." Wood was the captain of the Gryffindor team.

"So, when does training start?" Gohan asked. He wasn't as excited as Ron, he was more relieved that Harry wasn't expelled and feeling a little foolish about letting his temper get the better of him earlier that day.

At that moment, Draco Malfoy made his way into the Great Hall, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Last meal, Potter?"

"You're a lot braver on the ground with your little friends to back you up," Harry replied, not looking up from his meal.

"I'll take you on any time you want, Potter," Malfoy retaliated, "Tonight even. A wizard's duel. You can even get your dark wizard friend here to second you if you want."

"I'm not a dark wizard," Gohan said. He had been uttering similar sentiments ever since he blew up that chair on his first night.

"He'll be there," Ron said, "Who's your second."

"Crabbe. We'll meet at midnight in the trophy room," Malfoy and his mountain-like friends left for the Slytherin table.

"What's a wizard's duel?" Harry asked Ron, "And what did he mean about Gohan being my second?"

"Well, a second's there to take over if you die," Ron said, attacking his meal again. Catching the expression on Harry's face, he added, "But you and Malfoy will probably only be able to shoot sparks at each other."

"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?"

Ron shrugged, "Throw the wand away and punch him in the face. Gohan'll be able to hold Crabbe off if it gets dirty."

"Excuse me," interrupted Hermione Granger, "I couldn't help overhearing –"

"I'm sure you could," muttered Ron.

" – You _can't_ go wandering around the school at night. It's against the rules. You'll lose points for Gryffindor if you're caught and –"

"And it's none of your business," Harry interjected.

*          *          *

Harry, Gohan and Ron couldn't sleep that night, so they stayed up, whispering in hushed voices about the duel. Ron kept giving Harry tips about how to dodge curses, while Gohan tried to give Harry a crash course in where exactly Draco would leave openings for a hard punch if things got out of hand. The three of them knew they were more than likely going to get caught by Filch, but they agreed that some things were worth taking a risk for.

Finally, at half past eleven, the three boys left their dormitory and headed out into the Gryffindor common room. They made their way across to the portrait hole when a voice broke the silence.

"I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."

Ron rolled his eyes in the darkness. Hermione was at it again. "Go back to bed!" he whispered furiously at her.

"Come on," Gohan muttered, "We're going to be late." He pushed open the portrait and climbed through the hole. Ron and Harry clambered through after him, but Hermione wasn't about to give up. She followed them out.

"I can't believe you'd be so selfish! You'll lose all the points that I earned Gryffindor during –"

"Go away."

Hermione looked like she was about to do nothing of the sort. Gohan smiled and winked at her. "Don't worry about us. We'll be fine."

Hermione blushed and turned to face the portrait, but the Fat Lady had left, which meant Hermione had been locked out of Gryffindor tower. The three boys tried to leave while Hermione's back was turned, but she caught up. Ron was just about to start another argument with her when Gohan tripped over something and went crashing to the ground. Muttering a few choice words in his native tongue, Gohan looked back to what he had tripped over to find Neville curled up on the floor.

"Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, but I couldn't remember the password."

"The password is 'Pig snout', but the Fat Lady has gone off somewhere, so it won't do you much good."

"We'd love to stay and chat, but we've got to be somewhere – "

"Don't leave me!" Neville shrieked, getting back on his feet, "I don't like being out here alone!"

Ron looked at Gohan, who looked at Harry, who nodded.

"If either of you get us caught," Ron whispered to Hermione and Neville, "I will get Fred and George to teach me the Curse of the Bogies."

The group of five crept around the corridors of the castle, expecting to run into Mrs Norris or Filch at every corner. Soon they found themselves inside the trophy room.

Malfoy wasn't there yet. The group waited for a while, inspecting the trophies, cups and shields around them as the minutes crept by.

"Maybe he chickened out," whispered Ron after they had been waiting for fifteen minutes. Harry was about to respond when a voice in the other room broke the silence.

"They're in here somewhere," the voice of Filch said, "Sniff around and try to find them."

The group began to creep down a long corridor full of suits of armour. Filch was getting nearer. Neville tripped and went crashing into a suit of armour with enough noise to wake the dead.

"RUN!" Harry yelled as the five students sprinted down the corridor. They took the next turn, not knowing or caring where it took them. They found a secret passageway and followed it down until it reached the Charms corridor.

"I told you!" Hermione said in a superior tone, "I told you not to go wandering –"

"Oh shut up," Ron hissed at her.

"Malfoy tricked you, you do know that, don't you? He wasn't going to meet you in the trophy room. He probably tipped Filch off."

Gohan was about to say something, but was momentarily distracted by Peeves making his way through a door. He caught sight of the group of students and gave a squeal of delight.

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED IN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!" he bellowed. The five students broke into a run as they heard Filch approaching. They ran into a dead end – the only door through the corridor was locked.

"_Alohomora!_" Hermione said as she tapped the lock with her wand. The door swung open and the group made their way into the room, shutting the door behind them.

"Which way did they go, Peeves," they heard Filch say outside the door.

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," came the reply.

"Please."

"NOTHING! Ha! Told you I wouldn't say nothing is you didn't say please. Ha haa! Ha!" The sounds of Peeves cackling as he left rang through the silent room.

Relieved, the five students turned around, and found out that they weren't in a room, but another corridor. The forbidden corridor at that. And they soon found out that Dumbledore wasn't kidding when he said that students in that corridor would meet a painful death, for the corridor contained a huge three-headed dog, with all three heads focussed on the students in front of him. It growled, and there was no doubt exactly what the growls meant. Harry reached for the doorknob and the five students pushed their way through the door, which Harry proceeded to slam shut. They ran, and didn't stop running until they were back at the portrait of the Fat Lady. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed into the armchairs by the now-dead fire.

"What do you think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up here?" Ron asked between breaths.

"You mean you didn't notice what the dog was standing on?" Hermione snapped, "It was standing on a trap door. It's obviously guarding something. I hope you're happy. We could have been killed, or even worse, expelled. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

Ron, Harry and Gohan just stared at her as she stormed off to her dormitory.

"You'd think we dragged her along," Gohan muttered, "I'll never understand girls."

"It's not girls, it's Hermione," came Ron's reply.

But Harry wasn't listening. _The dog was guarding something…_ Harry's mind flashed back to what Hagrid had said about Gringotts. _Gringotts is the safest place in the world to keep anything, except maybe Hogwarts_.

It looked as though Harry knew where the package Hagrid had picked up was now hidden.

*          *          *

Well, that's it for Chapter Four. Chapter Five may take a little while, since I'm back at uni on Monday, but I'll try to get it out as fast as possible.


	5. Chapter the Fifth

Harry Potter and the Saiya-Jin Wizard 

Yay! Chapter Five is here! This is officially the longest I've gone without writing... or writing anything fun, I should say, since I've been writing essays and other evil assignments for the past few months. But enough about me - you're here for the next chapter, right?

Before it begins, a big thankyou to all who reviewed my last chapter, excepting one reviewer who turned out to be a bitter acquaintance of mine who I'd rather not talk about.

Chapter the Fifth 

The next morning was one of excitement for Harry, Ron and Gohan as they discussed the adventure they had last night. Hermione wasn't speaking to them over it, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Gohan almost felt sorry for her - after all, he's an overachiever himself - but she was just so _annoying_.

The next week was filled with discussions on how to get revenge on Malfoy. Unfortunately, most plans fell back on Gohan using some form of 'dark magic' on Malfoy, which Gohan absolutely refused to do.

"What's the worst, most painful spell possible?" Gohan asked when Ron suggested that he blow Malfoy up for the thirtieth time.

"No idea. Why?"

"Well, multiply that by a thousand and you'll know a fraction of what my mother would do to me if I got expelled."

Ron was about to tell Gohan that he had to be exaggerating when their conversation was broken up by a swarm of owls delivering the daily mail. Gohan got his usual letter from his mother, but he couldn't read it, as like everyone else in the room, his attention was drawn to a long, thin package being carried by six owls. The package was dropped in front of Harry, followed closely by a letter, which Harry tore open and read with glee.

"It's my broomstick," Harry whispered to Ron and Gohan, "A Nimbus 2000. Let's go back to Gryffindor Tower and have a good look."

The three left the hall quickly, but before they could make it to somewhere private to unwrap the parcel, they were approached by Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy grabbed the package from Harry's hands and felt it, recognising the shape within immediately.

"That's a broomstick. You'll be for it this time, Potter."

"It's not just a broomstick, either," said Gohan, who had never found enjoyment in torturing people before he met Malfoy, "It's a Nimbus 2000. I'm not too familiar with broomsticks, but I think I read somewhere that Nimbus 2000s are pretty good..."

"What did you say you had, Malfoy?" Ron decided to add his two cents to the conversation, figuring Gohan could protect him if things got out of hand, "A Comet Two-Sixty? They're not even close to a Nimbus 2000."

Malfoy looked ready to make Ron regret getting involved when Professor Flitwick decided to turn up.

"Potter's been sent a broomstick, Professor," Malfoy said. Of course, he was expecting Harry to get in trouble for this. He didn't.

"Ah, yes. Professor McGonagall told me about the special circumstances. A Nimbus 2000, right?"

The look on Malfoy's face was priceless as our three heroes headed upstairs. Once they were in the common room, Harry removed the packaging from his new broomstick and the three boys all stood back to admire it's black shiny handle and the perfectly aligned twigs that made up its tail.

"I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking the rules?" came a disapproving voice from behind them. Hermione, being her usually busybody self had followed them and was now looking disapprovingly at the broomstick in front of them.

At seven o'clock that night, Harry crept out of the common room, broomstick in tow, to begin his first training session. With not much else to do, Rob taught Gohan how to play Wizard's Chess, which was essentially the same as regular chess, except the pieces were alive. Gohan was normally quite good at chess, but his pieces, which he had borrowed from Fred Weasley kept offering their take on things, confusing him - not to mention that sometimes they wouldn't even follow his directions. Ron worked much more cohesively with his pieces, and it wasn't long before he had Gohan right where he wanted him.

"Checkmate. Another game?"

"Not right now," Gohan replied. He wasn't really used to coming in second best in anything, and had no desire to have his rear handed to him again, "Hey, Ron, what exactly is Quidditch?"

Rob looked at Gohan as if he'd grown a third arm.

"I mean... I know it's a sport and all, but how is it played?"

Ron still looked like Gohan was completely alien (which, of course, he is). "Alright. I'll try to explain the rules to you. It's pretty easy to understand. There are four positions on the Quidditch team: Chaser, Beater, Keeper and Seeker. Three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and One Seeker. There are also four balls in play during the game: one Quaffle, two Bludgers, and the Snitch."

Gohan nodded. It seemed easy enough to understand so far.

Ron went on, "The Chasers pass the Quaffle around, trying to put it through any of the three hoops at the opposite end of the field. It's the Keeper's job to protect these hoops, because every time the Quaffle goes through, that team scores a point. The Beaters are there to protect the other players on the field from the Bludgers. The Bludgers are enchanted to attack the players. The Beaters fend them off with clubs. The Seeker, that's Harry's position, spends the entire game looking for a Snitch. It's his job to capture the Snitch before the other team's Seeker. This scores his team 150 points. The game continues until the Snitch is captured - the record for the longest Quidditch game is three months. Understand?"

Gohan nodded. He didn't really understand too well, but he was sure that once he saw a game, he'd know what was going on. Besides, it's not like he had to understand too much of the game to sit on the sidelines and cheer for Harry.

Two months passed in a blur for our three young heroes. Harry turned out to be quite well suited to Quidditch, and his time was taken up with a mixture of training and homework. Much to his relief, Gohan was finally starting to get somewhere with his magic and was finding mediocrity to be very therapeutic.

Their first lesson on the day of Hallowe'en was Charms, and Professor Flitwick had announced that the class was now ready to begin making objects fly. The class worked in pairs to try and get a feather airborne. Gohan and Harry worked together while Ron was stuck with either Hermione or Neville. He chose Hermione.

It was definitely harder than it looked. Harry and Gohan worked at their feather all lesson without any success, and Ron wasn't going any better.

"No, you're saying it wrong!" Hermione snapped at Ron as he tried once more to get the feather off the table.

"Then you do it then, if you're so smart," Ron replied.

Hermione ignored the bad grammar in Ron's challenge as she picked up her wand, "_Wingardium Leviosa_!" The feather rose two feet into the air and stayed there.

"Well done, Miss Granger!" Professor Flitwick started heaping praise on Hermione while the rest of the class groaned. More bragging rights for Miss Perfect [A/N: Can you tell I don't think much of Hermione?].

He wasn't sure why, but Gohan couldn't stand this much longer. He decided to take a risk and started transferring his ki to the feather, much like he had done to get his broomstick into his hand two months earlier. Within a few seconds his feather was jumping around on the table.

"Wingardium Leviosa," Gohan said, not really needing the incantation, but figuring it would make it look like he wasn't cheating to get his feather in the air. The feather shot straight upwards like a rocket, a good foot and a half higher than Hermione's.

"Marvellous, Son!" professor Flitwick exclaimed, "I've never seen someone make an object fly so fast! And the height is excellent for a first attempt! And..."

Hermione was not impressed.

"I'm not sure I should have done that..." Gohan muttered to Ron and Harry after class, "If anyone would've realised what really went on, I would have been expelled."

"Trust me, you did the right thing," Ron said, "Hermione's so annoying, it'd do her good to shut her up every now and then."

Someone pushed past Harry and Gohan and ran off down the corridor. It was Hermione, looking visibly upset.

"She must've heard you," Harry said to Ron. Ron tried to fob it off as though he didn't care, but you could see that he was visibly upset.

Hermione didn't turn up at any of the classes for the rest of the day. She wasn't at the Hallowe'en feast, either. Our focal trio overheard Parvarti Patil talking about how Hermione was crying in the girl's toilets, wanting to be left alone. This made Ron and Gohan feel even worse about what had happened. Ron was feeling so bad that he barely touched the food at the feast. Of course, in the case of Saiya-jins, an empty stomach outweighs a heavy conscience in terms of priorities, so Gohan had no problem inhaling as much food as he could get his hands on.

The feast had barely begun when Professor Quirrel ran into the hall. "Troll - basement... help..." and he fainted right in front of everyone. This caused the entire hall to fall into chaos as the teachers and prefects tried to usher the students back to the dormitories. Just as they were about to join the group being shepherded by Percy, Gohan and Harry came to a startling realisation.

"Hermione," they both said at the same time.

"What about her?" Ron asked, oblivious to the problem.

"She doesn't know about the troll," Harry explained.

"So?" Ron responded, "It's not our problem..."

But Gohan had already disappeared from the group and was seeking refuge behind a large stone gargoyle. Harry gave Ron a look and the two boys soon joined Gohan, waiting for the crowds to dissipate.

Soon the trio made their way along the corridor and hurried off to where Hermione was hiding, almost running into Professor Snape on the way.

"What's he doing here?" Gohan whispered as they hid behind yet another convenient statue.

"Search me," came the response from Ron.

The boys smelt the troll before they saw him, for trolls tend to give off an unholy stench. But soon enough the three boys found themselves staring at a hulking mass of troll, carrying a rather painful-looking club and heading straight for them. Fortunately, the troll didn't see them and happened to shuffle off into another room, allowing Ron to shut the door and lock him in.

"Isn't that the girl's toilets?" Gohan asked, pointing at the door that Ron had just locked. A scream, recognised as Hermione's, proved his point nicely. Not having time to unlock the door, Gohan kicked it down and our three heroes dashed toward their certain doom.

Hermione was crouched against a wall, trying to shield herself from the twelve-foot behemoth in front of her. Harry and Ron started throwing things at the troll in an attempt to give Hermione time to run, but she seemed paralyzed with fear. Out of desperation, Harry jumped on the troll's shoulders and jammed his wand right up the troll's nose, which caused the troll to become enraged, swinging his club wildly. Not wanting to see Harry get clubbed to death, Gohan went Super Saiya-jin. The resulting flash of light caused the troll to stop trying to kill Harry and stare at the young demi-Saiya-jin.

"_Wingardium Leviosa_!" Ron's spell moved the club right out of the troll's reach as Gohan brought his hands together.

"Kame... hame... HA!!!!" Gohan's attack, while not strong enough to kill the troll, did knock it out, as well as the wall behind the it. Gohan powered down just as Professors McGonagall, Snape and Quirrel burst into the room. As Snape checked the troll, making sure it wouldn't leap up and kill them all, McGonagall began her verbal tirade on the four students.

"What were you thinking of?! You could've been killed! How..." McGonagall began, but was interrupted by the voice of Hermione.

"Professor, it wasn't their fault. They were looking for me. I thought I could deal with the troll by myself, so I came looking for it, and they saved me. Harry distracted the troll and Gohan and Ron managed to disarm him and knock him out with his own club. It was about to finish me off when they found me - they saved me."

Harry, Ron and Gohan couldn't believe it - Hermione was telling a lie to a teacher?

"Well, in that case...," McGonagall turned to Hermione, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a troll on your own?! Five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this! Now, head back to Gryffindor tower." McGongagall then addressed the three boys, "Now, I don't know how you managed to save her, but good job. You'll each earn Gryffindor five points..."

"You don't mean to tell me, Professor," the voice of Snape interrupted, as he surveyed the room, "that you believe that this damage was caused by a couple of first years using a levitating spell on a troll's club? I'd say Son here used some sort of illegal dark magic again."

Gohan's heart stopped momentarily. After all this, he was about to be expelled for sure...

"I'm well aware of what caused this damage, Professor Snape," McGonagall stated, "You aren't the _only_ teacher in this school who is familiar with the effects of dark magic. However, the fact remains that had Gohan not resorted to this spell, Miss Granger would be dead. Therefore I believe, and I'm sure that Professor Dumbledore would agree, that a special allowance can be made for this infraction. If it concerns you so much, Professor Snape, then I will only award points to Mr Potter and Mr Weasley. Now, the three of you head back to your dormitories."

The threesome didn't speak to each other until they were back in the tower. Gohan was still in shock from his near-expulsion, but Harry and Ron began a strained conversation.

"She shouldn't have taken Gohan 's points back," Ron complained.

"Well, he did use an illegal spell," Harry replied.

"Yeah, so expel him, but give us the points," Gohan hoped that was a joke.

Once the boys entered the common room, Hermione approached them. There was an awkward silence, then Hermione muttered a single phrase, "Thank you."

From that point on, the threesome became a foursome and Hermione became the quiet voice of reason to the group. After all, who wouldn't try to befriend someone who saved them from certain death?

Well, that wasn't so hard. It only took me a couple of days to write. The next chapter will be written within the next six weeks, and if not, don't expect it until Christmas unless a miracle happens and I get some time to write. I didn't cover everything I wanted to in this chapter, so I already know what's going to happen in the next one, so it shouldn't take too long.


	6. Chapter the Sixth

Hellooooo! Sorry for the 18-month gap in updates. Let's just say entering the real world is harder than anticipated.

To quickly respond to some feedback:

Squall Lionhart: I'd explain about the ki/dark magic thing, but that would ruin the story... and I know you're eager to wait five years until I get time to finish it :P

Madness Lover: I meant six weeks in DBZ time. This is actually early.

Reene: Mirai Trunks will be in the much-hypothesized (and probably never-written) sequel.

And now on with the show!

Chapter the Sixth (at long last)

As our heroes entered November, many changes took place. Gohan, Harry and Ron were starting to get the hang of magic – Gohan hadn't cheated and used his "Dark" powers in weeks. He was feeling at home at Hogwarts, spending all his time with his new friends. Even Hermione was becoming tolerable.

Quidditch season had begun, and Harry's cover was blown. Someone had spread the word that he was on the Gryffindor team, and now he had to fend off daily cheers and jeers from his fellow students.

At last the day arrived. Harry's first Quidditch match, against Slytherin, was scheduled for a rather cold Saturday morning. Gohan, Hermione and Ron joined most of Gryffindor in the spectator stands as Harry and the Gryffindor team entered the pitch. A blast of Madam Hooch's whistle, and the game begun.

To be perfectly truthful, Gohan found Quidditch to be quite boring. It seemed to him like a bunch of people flying around randomly, playing several different games at once that blended into one, convoluted sport. One of the few redeeming features in his mind was the commentary, provided by Lee Jordan. Lee, one of Fred and George Weasley's friends, spent half the game giving decent insight into what was going on and the other half making fun of the Slytherin players.

With nothing better to do, Gohan looked up at where Harry was flying, wishing he could join him. Even if his skill on a broomstick wasn't that good, he missed flying unaided, on the back of his pet dragon, or on Kinto'un; feeling the wind in his hair as he chased birds, dragons or the occasional Concord. Of course, flying on Kinto'un was different from flying on a broomstick. For starters, Kinto'un flew smoothly, whereas broomsticks seemed to jerk around a lot.

Gohan tore his eyes away from Harry for a moment and looked at the rest of the players. Then he realised that only Harry's broomstick seemed to jerk around a lot. _Come to think of it,_ Gohan thought,_ Harry flies a lot better than this._

"What's happening to Harry?" Gohan asked, hoping someone with more knowledge could explain whether this was some sort of Quidditch strategy.

"It looks like he's lost control of his broom," Ron mused, glancing at where Harry was now struggling to stay on his magic cleaning product. The broom gave a hard jerk and Harry fell off, grasping the handle on his descent, so he was now dangling from the handle.

"Do you think his broomstick got damaged in the game?" Gohan suggested.

"No, it would take a really powerful hex or something to do that," Ron answered. Hermione started scanning the crowd. Suddeny, she gasped and pointed. Gohan followed her gesture and saw that Snape was staring intently at Harry, muttering under his breath.

"He's jinxing the broom," Hermione whispered as she snuck off in the crowd to try and break the curse at the source.

Gohan, meanwhile, was watching Harry intently. Even if it meant expulsion, he was ready to fly out and catch Harry the moment he lost his grip and started plummeting to the ground. Hermione, meanwhile, had conjured up a small fire, which was consuming Professor Snape's robes. He broke contact and started dousing the flames as Harry managed to get back on his broom. Harry quickly headed for the ground, and when he landed coughed into his hand, producing the Snitch. By luck, he had swallowed it while he was being thrown from his broom.

A while later, our four protagonists were discussing the events with Hagrid. No matter what Ron, Hermione and Gohan said, they couldn't convince Hagrid that Snape had been cursing Harry.

"Why would Snape try and do tha'?" Hagrid argued.

"Well," Harry said, "We know he was heading towards the forbidden corridor the night the troll was let into the school. He might be after whatever the three-headed dog is guarding."

"How do you know about Fluffy?" Hagrid asked in shock.

"Fluffy?!"

"Yeah, I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the..." Hagrid trailed off, realising that he almost gave away the secret.

"Guard what?" Gohan asked, hoping that Hagrid would finish his sentence.

"Never you mind," Hagrid said, "That's between Dumbledore an' Nicholas Flamel."

"In that case, can you tell us who Nicholas Flamel is?" Harry asked.

Hagrid looked furious with himself, then kicked the four out of his hut.

As Christmas approached, our heroes were faced with the option of leaving Hogwarts for the holidays. Harry immediately put his name down to stay behind, prefering the cold, (almost) empty castle to any amount of time with the Dursleys. Likewise, Ron would be staying, because his parents would be abroad visiting his older brother Charlie. After much careful thought, Gohan decided to stay back as well.

The decision didn't come easily to Gohan. He would have loved to see his mother and brother again after spending so long away from home. However, he also felt that his friends needed him. Besides, not being a Christian, Christmas was just another day in the Son household.

That just left Hermione, who would be returning to her family for Christmas. As she departed, she reminded the boy to do everything they could to discover who Nicholas Flamel was.

Searching for Nicholas Flamel in the library had become somewhat of a hobby for the foursome since Hagrid had let the name slip. Harry was sure he'd heard the name before, but with no clues as to why Nicholas was famous, they had no choice but to pull books off the shelf at random to search. Needless to say, it wasn't a very successful strategy.

Of course, as soon as Hermione departed, our three heroes decided that life was too short to worry about Nicholas Flamel. Christmas was upon them, and they decided to have a bit of fun. Their days were filled with snowball fights (Gohan made sure to be _very_ careful when throwing snowballs), wizard chess and other wholesome activities. And when Christmas came, Harry and Gohan were both shocked to find a pile of presents at the foot of their beds.

Gohan looked at his pile. It was smaller than Harry's, and much smaller than Ron's. He guessed that could be expected, since his family didn't celebrate Christmas. A parcel with the address written in Japanese caught his eye, and he opened it to reveal a case of capsules that his friends in Japan had obviously sent him. The enclosed letter stated that the capsules contained a variety of muggle textbooks, clothes, photos, junk food and other stuff that they thought he might want or need at Hogwarts. Harry and Ron, neither of whom had ever seen a capsule before, had a great time expanding and encapsulating the contents of the capsules (Gohan had hidden the one from Master Roshi before letting Harry and Ron near them).

Among his other presents was a gift from Hermione (a pack of Chocolate Frogs) and, surprisingly enough, a present from Ron's parents. He opened it to reveal a hand-knitted jumper. Harry and Ron had both also received the hand-knitted article of clothing, as well as a few other interesting bits and pieces. Harry was trying out the flute that Hagrid had made for him when Ron spotted an unopened gift with Harry's name on it.

Harry took the gift and unwrapped it. A card inside claimed that the gift had belonged to Harry's father. Harry looked at the silvery cloth. Ron gasped.

"That's an Invisibility Cloak!" he exclaimed, "I'm sure of it. Try it on."

Harry put the cloak on. His body immediately became invisible – only his head was visible. He immediately grabbed the card again and searched for a clue of who the sender might be. He didn't recognise the writing, and there was no signature – just a request that he "use it well".

The day went quickly for the boys as they ate excessively (although Gohan was still a little hungry), had a snowball fight and hypothesized about Nicholas Flamel. By the time they went to bed, Harry had formulated a plan to use the Invisibility Cloak to access the Restricted section in the library.

The Restricted section contained books that were deemed unsuitable for most of the student population to access. For the most part, these were books that contained knowledge and spells of the Dark arts, and required a note from a teacher to be read. He waited until Ron was snoring and then quietly crept off under his Cloak.

"Going somewhere?" the voice of Gohan startled Harry as he headed across the common room.

"How did you...?" Harry began.

"You're invisible to my sight, but not my senses," Gohan answered, somewhat mysteriously. He wasn't sure whether sensing auras was Dark magic, but decided not to risk explaining his abilities to Harry, "Where are you going?"

Harry explained his plan to Gohan. Never missing the opportunity to further his reading, Gohan offered to join Harry. Despite some initial misgivings, he eventually decided that he would enjoy the company. The two boys covered themselves with the Cloak and headed off to the library.

When they arrived, they headed straight for the restricted section. Harry and Gohan started glancing at the titles of the books, many of which were in foreign languages and could not be understood. Harry started scanning the shelves for anything that was in English, when Gohan saw a book that caught his eye. A deep red colour, the cover bore the title in large gold letters: _Wandless Magic: The Dark Art of the Saiya-jins_.

Gohan silently freaked out when he read that. A book about Saiya-jins! Perhaps now, Gohan could have some of his questions answered. Forgetting all about Nicholas Flamel, he reached for the book and pulled it off the shelf. Carefully, he opened the book.

A piercing scream filled the room. Gohan quickly closed the book, but it kept screaming. The boys heard footsteps outside and dove under the Invisibility Cloak, just as Filch entered the library. The boys manouvred around Filch as they left the library, and ran in an almost-random direction. As they caught their breath near a suit of armour, they heard Filch's voice.

"You wanted to know if someone was wandering around at night," he was saying, "Someone's been in the Restricted section in the library."

"The Restricted section?" the boys groaned inwardly as they heard Snape respond, "They can't be far, then."

The corridor was too narrow. Even if they couldn't be seen, Snape and Filch would bump into the boys if they came down here. In desperation, the boys headed for a nearby open door, just as Snape and Filch walked past. A moment later, the threat was gone and the boys could relax.

The room appeared to be an old classroom. No longer used, the desks had been moved to the sides of the room. In the middle of the room, however, was a huge mirror in a golden frame. Inscribed on the frame was the phrase _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi_.

It was Harry who looked in the mirror first, and gave an audible gasp as he did.

"Gohan," he whispered, "It's my parents! My parents are in the mirror."

Gohan moved closer to the mirror. He had never heard ofa mirror that lets you see someone's dead parents, and he was curious to see his friend's mum and dad. What he saw, however, wasn't Harry's parents.

"Dad," he whispered, "I can see my father in the mirror."

Harry stared at the mirror intently, "Where? I can only see my parents."

"Right there, I can see my father. Where are your parents?"

The boys looked at each other.

"Perhaps this mirror lets someone see their family," Harry mused.

"Or communicate with dead relatives," Gohan suggested.

"Not quite," came a voice behind them, "Although many people would get that impression."

The boys turned to see Professor Dumbledore standing behind them. Their panic subsided when they saw that he was smiling.

" I didn't see you there, Sir," Gohan said, with that horrible sinking feeling he got whenever he thought of how his mother would react if he got expelled.

"I don't need a Cloak to become invisible," Dumbledore explained, "I see that you two have discovered the wonders of the Mirror of Erised. You were on the right track when you were working out what the mirror shows, but you need to concern yourself with the _why_, rather than the _what."_

"I don't understand, Sir," Harry muttered, gazing in the mirror.

"You, who have never known your parents, saw them in the mirror. Gohan, who lost his father in very tragic circumstances a number of years back, saw his father alive and well. However, it doesn't always show death. The happiest man on earth would see nothing at all."

"So it shows us what we want," Harry suggested.

"No," Gohan said, as he realised what it was doing, "It doesn't just show what we want, does it? It's deeper than that, right?"

"Correct," Dumbledore replied, "The Mirror of Erised shows the deepest of our hearts' desires. Both of you have lost close family in tragic circumstances. It's natural for you to desire to see them again, so this mirror provided similar effects. Others see wealth, or power. Others yet again see things that we are probably best not to speculate upon. But no matter what the mirror shows you, it doesn't give knowledge or truth. Many have been driven mad by this mirror, gazing at what it shows, not sure whether it is truly attainable.

"I will be relocating the mirror tomorrow, and I ask you boys not to try and find it again. It's not a good idea to spend your life in service to a mere reflection or illusion. Now, it is time you concealed yourselves again and went to bed.

Gohan and Harry stood up. As they pulled the Cloak over them, Harry spoke.

"Sir, what do you see when you look in the mirror?"

"I see myself holding a pair of socks. One can never have enough, you know."

As they headed back towards Gryffindor tower, the boys agreed that Dumbledore had been less than truthful with them.

I won't give myself a deadline for the next chapter. It will come when I get time to write it.


End file.
